Don't worry, he's apparently fine...but David Cook went to the hospital last night after his "Little Sparrow" moment (quite good, I thought, as usual.) He said he had heart palpitations - which, of course, could be a sign of something serious - and so off he went. For complete coverage of Tuesday's American Idol, click here
TMZ first reported this, and People got the update, and here it is: "American Idol contestant David Cook was hospitalized after Tuesday night’s live show when he felt heart palpitations, a source confirms.Cook was treated for high blood pressure and released back to the Idol apartments where he was 'doing fine,' the source says."
Yeah, this is bizarre (and hasn't Cook had some sort of problem before? Will check...) The guy's terrific - my own personal front-runner - and the pressure-cooker of this comp has got to be overwhelming at times. But he's been pretty consistent on stage - consistently good, that is.
Also note: Last night, he gave credit again to Chris Cornell for last week's version of "Billy Jean." My assumption is that Cook heard some of the blowback in the wake of last week (some fans didn't think Cornell got enough credit, and I was hard-pressed to tell whether he got any.) Cornell later went on the record to say he was a little put off too.
Why is Cook's condition such a big deal? Simply because HE is: The judges (Randy, Si, Paula) have treated him like he's in a different league, and in fact he is. Here's Cowell on Cook in last week's "EW:" I've got to tell you, watching it back, this performance he did on 'Billie Jean,' in my opinion, was in a different league to anything we've heard on the season so far. It was so much better, he kind of made some of the other performances seem ridiculous."
One doesn't often hear Simon Cowell say such things about anybody. Yes, there have been very mini-controversies - the Cornell one, for example which also drew a lot of attention/commentary to TV Zone but I haven't heard anyone yet say he can't hold a note or lacks discernible talent; of the latter, he's abundantly endowed.
Meanwhile, TMZ says Cook was urged to go to the hospital during the show - he declined - and has been under high stress because of his brother, suffering from cancer.
And, here's the TMZ report, with additional details about last night.
Comments (4)
Too much is being made of David Cook not giving credit to Chris Cornell. Randy Jackson is the person who really blew it by not knowing/realizing that it was the Cornell version that Cook sang
I agree with Steve. It's much ado about nothing new. Idols use other artists' versions of songs all the time. And it seems Randy and Simon aren't as up on their music as they should be in their position. Randy confuses songs and artists all the time, and Simon more often than I'd expect hasn't even heard some of the songs selected. What's the difference between David Cook (or Blake Lewis or Jason Castro, etc.) doing a different version of a song or an Idol doing the original song pretty much as it was done?
i certainly wasn't worried! this guy is a total tool, theres nothing worse than trying to watch this guy pretending to be a rocker on a freakin singing show competition!
I can't believe that poor Cornell's name even gets mentioned in the same paragraph as this wanna be!
Ryan Seacrest credited Cornell before Cook took to the stage last week. I agree that it was Randy Jackson's fault for not acknowledging that, but it was also Cornell's bad form in not finding out that Cook had actually indeed crediting him (via Seacrest) before performing.